Hi folks! - This is one jammed-packed
newsletter. 12 new reviews this weeks - half of which are comparisons. Films by
Zhang Yimou, Kazan, Minnelli, Milestone, Wyler, Kurtiz... An HD DVD
comparison, 2 Criterions plus our recommendations and MANY new additions to the Release Calendar.

TOMORROW -Lions Gate will be releasingThe Alfred Hitchcock Box SetwithThe Ring (1927), The Manxman (1929), Murder!
(1930),The Skin Game (1931) andRich and Strange
(1931). Our information
informs us that these should be the same wonderful transfers as
the French editions released in 2005, but without the forced
French subtitles. See our reviews here:The Ring, The Manxman, Murder!, The Skin Game. Order the Lions
GateHERE

STRATEGIES:
The best way to take full advantage of Amazon is to use PRE-ORDERs
- lock in at the discount price by ORDERING - if perchance you
decide against the purchase you have until the release date to
cancel - at no charge.

AND if you will purchase
more than 35 DVDs (or anything) in a 365 day period (and live in
the Continental US) it makes excellent financial sense to
subscribe to Amazon Prime! You will get Free 2-day
shipping on your purchases!

Feature DVD of
the Month (February) - Casablanca HD - Image difference could be as little
as a 10-15% improvement over the Special Edition but it amounts
to a huge disparity if you consider how strong the SE looks -
and how little room for improvement there appeared to be. The
High Definition visually appears smoother, sharper and what I
can only describe as having 'more depth'. Certainly much more
film-like. Contrast is at perfection levels I have never seen.
The previous restoration gave us an almost flawlessly clean
image, but this HD transfer has bumped it up a mesmerizing
notch.
REVIEWED
HERE PURCHASE
HERE

RECOMMENDATIONS: Two items this week blew my socks off - Casablanca HD is a monumental step forward
in digital transfer. To quote Robert Crawford of HTF - ""Casablanca" remains
one of the most impressive video presentations of the 130 discs I own among
these new formats. (BluRay and HD)". Robert knows his stuff and l can't say
enough about it.

No matter which route you go William
Wyler's The Heiress is a distinct film deserving
your attention.

New Reviews:

The Arrangement - Kazan's overwrought
account of one mans midlife crisis stars Kirk Douglas as the advertising
executive who drives his car under a truck, frustrated at the shallowness of the
life he is living. He survives and sees the opportunity to readdress his
situation, to confront his loveless marriage, to do something with the money he
earns from conning people and to reclaim the moments he has missed while
building his conventionally successful life. DVD Release Date: January 30th,
2007

Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist -
All-American athlete, scholar, renowned baritone, stage actor, and social
activist, Paul Robeson (1898-1976) was a towering figure and a trailblazer many
times over. He was perhaps most groundbreaking, however, in the medium of film.
The son of an escaped slave, Robeson managed to become a top-billed movie star
during the time of Jim Crow America, headlining everything from fellow pioneer
Oscar Micheaux's silent drama Body and Soul to British studio showcases to
socially engaged documentaries, always striving to project positive images of
black characters. Increasingly politically minded, Robeson eventually left
movies behind, using his international celebrity to speak for those denied their
civil liberties around the world and ultimately becoming a victim of ideological
persecution himself. But his film legacy lives on and continues to speak
eloquently of the long and difficult journey of a courageous and outspoken
African American. DVD Release Date: February 13th, 2007

A Summer Place - Think A Summer Place, and
you'll probably be humming Max Steiner's wonderfully romantic instrumental theme
song, a hand-holding hit in 1959. The movie itself is similarly irresistible, a
colorful soap opera about the passions of a pair of dewy-eyed teens and their
straying parents. At an island resort in Maine, Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue (the
reigning teen idols of the day) fall hard for each other. What they don't know
is that her father (Richard Egan) and his mother (Dorothy McGuire), lovers 20
years earlier, have rekindled their affair. Both, inconveniently, have spouses,
which is what makes this a soap opera. Lovers of camp will find much to savor in
the incredible '50s attitudes, and in the innocence of supervirgin Dee ("Johnny,
have you been bad with girls?"). DVD Release Date: February 6th, 2007

All Quiet on the Western Front - The film
is emotionally draining, and so realistic that it will be forever etched in the
mind of any viewer. Milestone's direction is frequently inspired, most notably
during the battle scenes. In one such scene, the camera serves as a kind of
machine gun, shooting down the oncoming troops as it glides along the trenches.
Universal spared no expense during production, converting more than 20 acres of
a large California ranch into battlefields occupied by more than 2,000
ex-servicemen extras. After its initial release, some foreign countries refused
to run the film. Poland banned it for being pro-German, while the Nazis labeled
it anti-German. DVD Release Date: February 6th, 2007

Goldfinger - This film scintillates with
wit, and crackles with energy and pace. Sean Connery excels in the role of Bond
as the deadly charmer, whose smoothness covers something rather sinister. Gert
Frobe is wonderful as the looney mittel-European Goldfinger; completely assured
that what he is doing is going to work. This film has in it a refreshing air of
escapism and fun, and a sense of charm and chic sadly lacking from modem action
movies. DVD Release Date: February 6th, 2007

Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles - When
Yimou returns to the little touching emotionalism of his earlier years, he can
still make remarkable films. Yimou's masterful direction made sure that this
warm hearted story does not become a full blown melodrama at the end. Japanese
icon Ken Takakura is actually wonderfully used here . Rarely have I seen him
able to use facial expressions and silent body gestures to create a repressed,
deeply tortured soul so effectively. The non-professional actors all turn in
uniformly good performance. This is the best movie Yimou has made since his last
truly remarkable film, "To Live" (1994). DVD Release Date: February 6th, 2007

Arabian Nights - I remember seeing this
film when it appeared in 1942, during WWII, a time of tension and uncertainty.
It was great escape. The villains were villainous, the heroes heroic. The drama
was dramatic and the storyline warm and fuzzy. Seeing it on video has allowed me
to revisit that past time when as a child the world was uncertain and it was
possible to escape into a costume-splendoured fantasy where the hero gets the
girl, saves the kingdom and justice is served. DVD Release Date: February
6th, 2007

The Clock - Vincente Minnelli's first
nonmusical (1945) is a charming and stylish if somewhat sentimental love story
about a soldier (Robert Walker) on a two-day leave in New York who meets and
marries an office worker (Judy Garland). Filmed on a studio soundstage with
enough expertise to make it seem like a location shoot, the film is appealing
largely for its performances and the innocence it projects. (Similar qualities
can be found, at a half-century remove, in Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise.)
In addition to Walker and Garland, Keenan Wynn and Moyna Macgill are well used.
DVD Release Date: February 6th, 2007

Miracle in the Rain - Jane Wyman is
appealing in the role of the grateful, love-smitten secretary, who finds
happiness in a sudden romance that gives her surcease in an otherwise drab
existence. Van Johnson, as the Tennessee reporter-G. I., is a gentle and
understanding though sometimes breezy lover. Eileen Heckart adds a few touching
bits as Miss Wyman's spinster office pal. Josephine Hutchinson does well as Miss
Wyman's mother, who is constantly bereaved over her separation from William
Gargan, who has little to do as the father. DVD Release Date: February 6th,
2007

Green For Danger - In the midst of Nazi air
raids, a postman dies on the operating table at a rural English hospital. But
was the death accidental? A delightful and wholly unexpected murder mystery,
British writer/director Sidney Gilliat's Green for Danger features Trevor Howard
and Sally Gray as suspected doctors and Alastair Sim in a marvelous turn as
Scotland Yard's insouciant Inspector Cockrill. A screenwriter who had worked
with Hitchcock on such films as The Lady Vanishes and Jamaica Inn, Gilliat slyly upends
whodunit conventions with wit and style. DVD Release Date: February 13th,
2007

The Heiress - A soberly dramatic and
polished version of Henry James's novel Washington Square, this shows some of
its theatrical origins in situation and dialogue, having arrived via the
Broadway adaptation by Ruth and Augustus Goetz. However, there are pleasures in
the designs, score by Copland (winning an Academy Award) and performances.
Oscar-winning de Havilland's portrayal of a plain-jane spinster who comes to the
painful realization that her suitor's intentions are more mercenary than
romantic is spine-chilling. As the dashing fortune-hunter, Clift brings a subtle
ambiguity to one of his least interesting roles, and Richardson is also
excellent. DVD Release Date: February 6th, 2007

Casablanca - Not seeing Casablanca for a
while can tend to make one forget what a monumental film it is.... how perfectly
the plot, characters, Steiner's score and Edson's cinematography mesh to create,
what is still regarded by many, as the greatest film of all time. The dialogue
has become virtually institutionalized. It is ranked number 2 in The American
Film Institute’s Top 100 American Films, and presently stands sixth with voters
in the Internet Movie Database’s Top 250. It is on hundreds of Top 10 lists.
I'll try not to simply gush... I feel the films lauded success stems from the
incomparable screen charisma embodied by the leads Bogart and Bergman. The
supporting cast is one of the strongest in cinema history. Bogie was at his
zenith in his greatest role and no female could equally exude Ingrid Bergman
radiance in Casablanca. I'll admit that I occasionally would get blasé about
this film's consistent accolades, but frankly one need only watch it to realize
it is fully deserved. DVD Release Date: November 14th, 2006